The Morning After: Tuesday, September 26th 2017

Dragon Quest X coming to 3DS, streams game onto system

Square Enix announced it's winging Dragon Quest X to the 3DS in Japan, with the MMORPG due for landing on September 4. As Siliconera reports, the port streams the game from a server onto the 3DS rather than running it natively, similar to services like PlayStation Now and OnLive, and in the same vein of the mobile versions released last year.

While the streaming tech means the handheld's 3D capabilities aren't usable, the game should look comparably strong on 3DS, similar to Remote Play on Vita. That all depends on the tech working as planned, but Square Enix does have the iOS and Android ports to draw experience from. Meanwhile, a prototype screenshot shows Wii U controls tied to the 3DS touchscreen, including the ZL and ZR buttons, the right analog stick and keyboard inputs.

Like on Wii, Wii U, PC and smartphones, the 3DS port has subscription fees in addition to a base purchase of 3,800 yen (around $37.) That comes with a free 60-day trial code among other goodies.

Meanwhile, Western fans of the RPG series have no further to go on than May's murmurs of consideration. And, while Square Enix discussed exporting Dragon Quest X during its financial results briefing, the primary destination of choice seemed to be Asia.